Fire sprinkler systems have been in use since the late 19th century. These systems play an integral role in protecting the lives of occupants in buildings and in reducing the damage to buildings from fire. To this end, sprinkler systems are regulated by applicable building codes. A structure's size, use, and occupancy expectations often mandate the installation of a sprinkler system.
It is well established that sprinkler systems are extremely effective life safety devices. However, the functionality of sprinkler systems can be compromised by cold weather, when pipes and sprinkler heads can freeze or burst, which can have fatal consequences by preventing the system from working properly.
Current regulations published by the National Fire Protection Association (or NFPA) mandate permanent heating of any and all spaces which house a sprinkler system or pipes such that they are protected against freezing. Building owners and managers currently conform to this regulation and protect their sprinkler systems against cold weather by heating sprinkler rooms using a heating solution that does not monitor the temperature of the fluid in the sprinkler system directly. This typically consists of an always-on room heater or a thermostat-controlled heater used to keep the air temperature in the room at a level more than sufficient to continually ensure the fluid in the sprinkler system is prevented from freezing. Even the most experienced building managers and owners still rely on an ineffective trial-and-error approach which can result in excessively high energy bills and waste.
These solutions and the current technology neither directly measure nor directly control their intended target: the temperature of the fluid (such as water) in the sprinkler system itself. This is a serious oversight and an unmet need in the fire safety industry, as well as others. Current solutions waste significant energy by blindly overheating a space in order to ensure the unobserved water temperature stays above freezing. Worse still, these solutions are not capable of detecting if the water is in danger of freezing (perhaps, for example, due to a heater malfunction). A solution that does not measure the fluid temperature directly can put life and property at risk. Take, for example, the overwhelmingly common case of a thermostat regulating the air temperature of a sprinkler riser room. Air temperature tends to change significantly faster than the fluid(s) contained within a piping system due to the difference in their respective specific heats. If someone were to open a door to such a room, allowing cold air to enter, the temperature of the air in the room would drop significantly faster than the temperature of the fluid in the sprinkler system. In response, the thermostat is likely to activate the heating system—since it is controlling against the air temperature—in order to maintain the air temperature set point, even though the temperature of the fluid in the sprinkler system likely remains largely unchanged. In this case, attempting to use air temperature as a proxy for the sprinkler fluid temperature would likely cause an unnecessary expenditure of energy and incur needless cost.
It is also known that the only practical instances where sensing instruments are used in connection with fire sprinkler systems are for internal flow detection (water moving through a pipe in the event of a deliberate or accidental sprinkler head discharge, leak, or fire event) and tamper detection (manual closing of a main flow valve). Through specialized monitoring, third-party alarm companies are alerted to binary changes in the system (flow/no flow; tamper/no tamper) so that they can subsequently notify the appropriate parties (e.g. alarm monitoring center, building management, building owners, fire department) with the notification sent from the system.
In particular, as shown in FIG. 1, a conventional piping system 500 includes a conventional pipe 502 that contains a fluid/gas 506 for use in a sprinkler system that is equipped with a fluid/gas condition sensor 504. As shown in FIG. 1, the probe 508 of sensor 504 is located within the flow of the fluid/gas 506 located within the pipe 502. The location of the probe 508 within the flow of the fluid/gas 506 can become problematic if a contaminant or other similar object within the fluid/gas contacts the probe 508 and breaks off or becomes obstructed by, probe 508. Therefore, it would be desirable to be able to measure the conditions of the fluid/gas without having the probe located within the flow of the fluid/gas 506 located within the pipe 502 and thereby disrupting the fluid flow dynamics within the pipe 502.
Consequently, sensors to detect water temperature or other measurable properties within the system which can more efficiently control associated heating elements and alert property owners of potential unsafe conditions before they occur is desirable. Despite the industry's need for such a solution, especially in light of the prevalence of increasingly severe weather conditions and modern system interconnectivity, none exists.
Furthermore, it is to be understood that the ability to determine the physical or chemical characteristics of fluid in a piped system, in real time, is vitally important in a wide range of industries. Indeed, for fire safety sprinkler industry applications, the importance of taking such measurements only increases with the size and complexity of the system. In short, current systems allow no accurate way to measure the real-time properties of fluid in within the system, potentially expending unnecessary energy and incurring associated costs while attempting to do so.
Finally, no universal and practical method or product exists for installing sensors into pipes without altering or impacting the system's fluid dynamics. There remains a significant need for an economical and practical process to monitor the real-time properties (temperature, moisture, pH, etc.) of the fluid within systems of pipes in diverse settings and environments.
Prior to the present invention, as set forth in general terms above and more specifically below, it is known to employ various types of monitoring and control process systems for fire sprinkler and other systems that utilize sensors. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,061 by Twerdochlib, U.S. Pat. No. 8,752,639 by Long, U.S. Pat. No. 9,857,265 by DeVerse, U.S. Pat. No. 9,958,337 by Sosale et al., U.S. Patent Application 2006/0272830 by Fima, and PCT Application WO 2012/007753 by Towner et al. While these various monitoring and control process systems for fire sprinkler and other systems that utilize sensors may have been generally satisfactory, there is nevertheless a need for a differentiated real-time monitoring and control process systems for fire sprinkler and other systems utilizing sensors which include a sensor probes with an integrated reservoir directly connected to the piping system allowing the sensors to be in direct contact with the fluid within the pipe system so as to measure temperature and other measurable characteristics located within the piping system without altering the system's fluid dynamics.
It is the purpose of this invention to fulfill these and other needs in the prior art in a manner more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the following disclosure.